Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Hobbs & Shaw

Director David Leitch changed the ending of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw right before production began. After multiple appearances in the larger Fast & Furious franchise, Leitch was put in charge of bringing a spinoff movie starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw to the screen. He was hired after his work on Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2, where he proved his ability behind the camera.

Just like many of the Fast & Furious films that have come before, one of the primary themes in Hobbs & Shaw is family. The movie introduces Deckard’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), but also has a large portion of the film dedicated to bringing the Hobbs’ family to the screen. The third act of Hobbs & Shaw shows Luke, Deckard, and Hattie travel to Samoa to seek refuge and help from the Hobbs family. They become integral to the film’s finale, but also help the movie end with the familial theme front and center.

In a new interview with CBR, Leitch revealed that this was not always the case though. The Samoan portion of the movie was always part of the plot, but it was not originally intended to be the ending. Leitch revealed that the extensive sequence that takes place in Chernobyl was the film’s ending before he requested the change to be made before production began. He said:

Once Leitch latched on to this change, he went on to explain that he told Johnson about it and that he was in complete agreement with the switch. This then put the pressure on writer Chris Morgan to rework the script, but how much needed to be changed isn’t clear. All Leitch did confirm was that some adjustment was required. He said, “It took Chris a little bit to shuffle somethings,” so this wasn’t as simple as just changing the settings. This change still allowed both Chernobyl and Samoa to have big set pieces, but end Hobbs & Shaw on a more personal note.

“It was hugely important [to end the film in Samoa]. I haven’t told many people this, but there was a moment not long before production where that was the second act of the movie on the page. And then we would end in the Chernobyl sequence. But after scouting [in Hawaii, where we filmed those sequences] and wrapping my head around the themes of family and reconnecting with the people that matter the most. … It shouldn’t take the fate of the world for you to show up at your family’s doorstep and ask forgiveness or mend the fences.”

It’s easy to see why Leitch would request a change like this too at the end of the day. Once Luke and Deckard defeated the film’s main villain, Brixton (Idris Elba), and Hattie removed the virus from her body, the team goes their separate ways to reunite their broken families. Luke takes his daughter to Samoa to meet her extended family for the very first time, while Deckard and Hattie go to break their mother out of prison together. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw would’ve ended with this reconciliation either way, so putting the Samoa sequence at the end helps these moments happen immediately after, and not after they all go to Chernobyl first.

MORE: All Hobbs & Shaw’s After-Credits Scenes Explained

Source: CBR

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